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Teenager Lance Stroll to race for Williams F1 next season

Williams driver for 2017 Lance Stroll with Valtteri Bottas (right) during the 2017 Formula One driver line-up at Williams headquarters in Grove, Oxfordshire. Picture by David Davies PA Wire/PA Images

13:33 3 Nov 2016
Raf Diallo
13:33 Thursday 3 November 2016

Williams have announced that teenager Lance Stroll will be part of their driver line-up for the 2017 Formula 1 season.

The Canadian has just turned 18 and will replace the outgoing Felipe Massa for 2017, due to the Brazilian's retirement.

Valtteri Bottas is retained for a fifth successive year as part of the two-driver pairing.

Stroll, the son of a billionaire and race track owner, has been involved in Formula 3 for 2015 and 2016.

The Prema Powerteam driver has won the Formula 3 championship this season.

He will become the second teenager on the Formula 1 grid in 2017 with Dutch driver Max Verstappen (19) at Red Bull.

This season, Williams are fifth in the constructor's championship standings, although they have just one podium finish thanks to Valtteri Bottas' third place in Canada.

With two races of the 2016 season to go, Massa is currently 11th in the driver's championship, as he brings the curtain down on a 14-year career in F1 that yielded 11 race wins and almost a world title in 2008 while at Ferrari.